The Green Dragon

You know you’re accomplishing something when folks on the other side of the religious spectrum start screaming that you’re dangerous.

Via The Wild Hunt, here’s a piece from the New York Times Green Blog on an Evangelical backlash against environmentalism, calling it “the green dragon.” The name is obviously an attempt to associate the whole green movement with the dragon of Revelation – Satan, and with the “end times” many look forward to. And their target isn’t just Pagans – it’s also an attempt to isolate liberal Evangelicals who believe we should care for what they see as God’s creation. Their charges range from vague to outright lies – you don’t need me to rebut them.

Winning the award for unintended irony is the Southern Baptist Convention’s Richard Land, who says “Environmentalists have a long history of believing and promoting exaggerations and myths.”

As Bron Taylor explained in his book of the same title, Dark Green Religion is “one where nature is sacred, has intrinsic value, and is therefore due reverent care.” It can be practiced theistically or non-theistically – and I suspect many of the non-theists don’t consider what they do to be “religion.”

Facts and data are agnostic – they are what they are. The realities of deep time (i.e. – the Universe is roughly 14 billion years old, not 6000), evolution, climate change, species loss, and the still-large-but-ultimately-limited quantity of fossil fuels are presenting serious challenges to Christian fundamentalists’ myths and doctrines. That they are lashing out against a small but growing competitor in the religious marketplace is hardly surprising.

Paganism, Earth religion, nature religion, green religion, pantheism, panentheism – call it what you will. It has grown to the point that we aren’t flying under the radar any more.